IT'S been a summer of change at Vicarage Road off the pitch.

With the redevelopment of the stadium now well underway, a new Cisco IT infrastructure, Stadium Access Card system installed, not to mention the new Buzz Store in the town centre - it certainly hasn't been a quiet time during the close season.
 
Our latest initiative sees a new phone system introduced which we hope will enable us over the coming months and years to provide a much higher level of service to supporters at a much lower cost.

To begin with, supporters will not notice a vast amount of difference apart from a direct route through to the Ticket Office from the 'Welcome' message platform. What the new phone system does provide us with is a far superior platform to bolt on enhanced operational products in the future including customer call back and automated ticket purchasing features.
 
Once we have successfully bedded in all our new systems that have been introduced over the summer we will start to work in much greater detail to offer extra services that will enhance supporters' experiences when interacting with the club.
 
The main benefit in the short term is the reduced cost of the call. As more and more clubs move onto an 0870 platform or profit sharing phone numbers such as 0871 or 0844 we have made the conscious decision to move to a low cost line.

We can never guarantee that at peak times supporters will not have to queue for a while before speaking to an assistant, however we have no desire to make money out of that call.
 
Our new club phone number, 0845 442 1881 is referred to as a LoCall rate and costs 3.36 pence per minute on week days, 1.26 pence per minute in the evenings and 0.85 pence per minute at weekends. 
 
We would like to remind all supporters and customers of the club that our previous number (0870 111 1881) is no longer in operation.